Martial (040–104)

See especially Book 11…xxx rated. As Byron says his Mom forbid him, "the nauseous epigrams of Martial" Don Juan. My Loeb edition I purchased at Princeton during an NEH summer seminar on Poet-Critics with Larry Lipking. Here, my own translations, from my Westport Soundings (GoodRds), p 50.

From bk XI.lxvi.*
" You're a stoolie, you fraud, you backbiter,
You pimp, ass-kisser, cock-sucker,
Yes you--you damn politician.
You know, you've got every qualification
For-- for a-- for a promotion."

Bk V.xliii "Gramp's got no teeth; Grama's got
The better dentist: hers just rot."

Bk III.liii. Palinode or Farewell
"If to part from you I must,
I could spare your petal cheeks,
Your neck and arms, those flower stalks,
Perhaps your legs, the windblown branch,
Your buds of breasts, your round rose hips,
But for the rest (a longer list)?--
Yes, I could spare the whole damn bush."

*You judge if I may have improved Martial a bit: he,
"Et delator es et calumniator,
et fraudator es et negotiator,
et fellator es et lanista, miror
quare non habeas, Vacerra, nummos."
Loeb Classical Library, Martial Epigrams II, ed Ker, 1968… (plus d'informations)